Kodak (NYSE: EK) files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection

Tallahassee, FL 1/19/12 (StreetBeat) -- Photography icon Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business.

The move comes as the ailing company has failed to find a buyer for its trove of 1,100 digital imaging patents. Kodak said in November that it could run out of cash in a year if it didn't sell the patents, for which it hoped to fetch billions.

Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday that it has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup Inc., and expects to be able to operate its business during bankruptcy reorganization and pay employees. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company, which was pummeled by foreign competition and then severely shaken by the digital revolution, has invested huge sums in new lines of inkjet printers that are finally on the verge of turning a profit.

CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement that the bankruptcy filing is "a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak."

The company and its board are being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Dominic DiNapoli, vice chairman of FTI Consulting, will serve as chief restructuring officer. Kodak expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

On its website, Kodak assured customers that the nearly $1 billion in debtor-in-possession financing would be sufficient to pay vendors, suppliers and other business partners in full for goods and services going forward. The bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York does not involve Kodak's international operations.

The Chapter 11 filing had been rumored for weeks. Multiple directors have resigned from Kodak's board and the company last week announced that it realigned and simplified its business structure in an effort to cut costs, create shareholder value and accelerate its long-drawn-out digital transformation. Since the start of the year, Kodak said it now has two business units — commercial and consumer — instead of three.

Previously, Kodak's business segments were divided into its traditional film and photo paper products, consumer digital imaging and graphic communications, which included printing equipment. Home photo printers, commercial inkjet presses, workflow software and packaging are viewed as Kodak's new core. Kodak has said it hopes the printer, software and packaging businesses will more than double in size by 2013 and account by then for 25 percent of its revenue, or nearly $2 billion.

Kodak did not announce job cuts as part of the bankruptcy protection filing. The company's payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 a decade ago.

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End of an Icon: Kodak (NYSE: EK) Prepares to File For Bankruptcy

Tallahassee, FL 1/6/12 (StreetBeat) -- Its products defined nearly a century of photography, cinema, and home video, but the venerable Kodak company (NYSE: EK) is on the verge of bankruptcy. While the company is reportedly preparing to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which permits restructuring, the firm is caught in a merciless slide.

Once so synonymous with film that its products coined the phrase "Kodak moment," the Rochester, NY-based corporation lost 95 percent of its value between 1999 - 2000. Revenue for 2010 was just $7.18 billion, down from 1996's $15.97 billion. It's stock, which traded at $30-35 per share back in 2006-2007 has fallen to 44 cents as of this writing; the company has been warned that it faces de-listing from the NASDAQ if share prices don't recover to at least $1.

The company's long, slow fall into irrelevancy was caused by its executives consistently failing to recognize the disruptive nature of new companies and technologies. The flaw first showed when Kodak turned down sponsoring the 1984 Olympics. Fujifilm, a cheaper Japanese company, jumped at the privilege, and picked up a 17% share in the US photography market by the late 1990s as a result.

Kodak failed to take digital photography seriously when the technology emerged, believing that Americans would never opt for digital cameras over traditional devices. For a few years, this remained true; early digital cameras were bulky, slow, and took remarkably terrible photos. When it became clear that digital cameras were going to be a major force in the market, Kodak jumped in--but failed to recognize how quickly the devices would become commoditized. In 2001, Kodak was losing $60 per camera sold, even as its film business shrank.

Kodak has attempted to compete more effectively in recent years with a hare-brained attempt to leap into the printer and digital picture frame businesses, both of which feature razor-thin margins and products of dubious quality. Neither move has been very successful. After divesting its manufacturing assets and firing over 20,000 people in the past seven years, the company hit on a last-ditch strategy for success: patent litigation.

The move paid off in 2010, when LG agreed to an $838M payment for patent licensing, and went nowhere thereafter. Kodak has been shopping its patent portfolio around since the summer of 2011, but has yet to find a buyer. Kodak is reportedly eying bankruptcy as a means to purge itself of obligations to fund retiree pensions, the cost of which makes it unattractive to possible buyers.

The larger problem Kodak faces is that the majority of the company's value is tied up in iconic brand recognition and its patent portfolio. Persistent failure to recognize and adapt to changing market conditions has led to a situation where the US corporation with more historic expertise in visual image technology than any other now has nothing to contribute to a medium it was instrumental in creating. As the Wall Street Journal writes: "This company failed long ago."

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End of an Icon: Kodak (NYSE: EK) Prepares to File For Bankruptcy

Tallahassee, FL 1/6/12 (StreetBeat) -- Its products defined nearly a century of photography, cinema, and home video, but the venerable Kodak company (NYSE: EK) is on the verge of bankruptcy. While the company is reportedly preparing to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which permits restructuring, the firm is caught in a merciless slide.

Once so synonymous with film that its products coined the phrase "Kodak moment," the Rochester, NY-based corporation lost 95 percent of its value between 1999 - 2000. Revenue for 2010 was just $7.18 billion, down from 1996's $15.97 billion. It's stock, which traded at $30-35 per share back in 2006-2007 has fallen to 44 cents as of this writing; the company has been warned that it faces de-listing from the NASDAQ if share prices don't recover to at least $1.

The company's long, slow fall into irrelevancy was caused by its executives consistently failing to recognize the disruptive nature of new companies and technologies. The flaw first showed when Kodak turned down sponsoring the 1984 Olympics. Fujifilm, a cheaper Japanese company, jumped at the privilege, and picked up a 17% share in the US photography market by the late 1990s as a result.

Kodak failed to take digital photography seriously when the technology emerged, believing that Americans would never opt for digital cameras over traditional devices. For a few years, this remained true; early digital cameras were bulky, slow, and took remarkably terrible photos. When it became clear that digital cameras were going to be a major force in the market, Kodak jumped in--but failed to recognize how quickly the devices would become commoditized. In 2001, Kodak was losing $60 per camera sold, even as its film business shrank.

Kodak has attempted to compete more effectively in recent years with a hare-brained attempt to leap into the printer and digital picture frame businesses, both of which feature razor-thin margins and products of dubious quality. Neither move has been very successful. After divesting its manufacturing assets and firing over 20,000 people in the past seven years, the company hit on a last-ditch strategy for success: patent litigation.

The move paid off in 2010, when LG agreed to an $838M payment for patent licensing, and went nowhere thereafter. Kodak has been shopping its patent portfolio around since the summer of 2011, but has yet to find a buyer. Kodak is reportedly eying bankruptcy as a means to purge itself of obligations to fund retiree pensions, the cost of which makes it unattractive to possible buyers.

The larger problem Kodak faces is that the majority of the company's value is tied up in iconic brand recognition and its patent portfolio. Persistent failure to recognize and adapt to changing market conditions has led to a situation where the US corporation with more historic expertise in visual image technology than any other now has nothing to contribute to a medium it was instrumental in creating. As the Wall Street Journal writes: "This company failed long ago."

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Discount Drug Mart Renews Contract With Eastman Kodak

Orlando, FL 11/11/11 (StreetBeat) --Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) announced the renewal of its agreement with Ohio-based Discount Drug Mart, Inc. to be the drug-chain’s exclusive supplier of photo finishing technology, products and services. Kodak will continue to support Discount Drug Mart’s fleet of Kodak Picture Kiosks and Kodak Adaptive Picture Exchange thermal dry labs.

The drug chain is in the process of upgrading its fleet with the latest Kodak innovations such as Facebook Site connectivity on the Kodak Picture Kiosk, duplex print capability and Web-to-store order and fulfillment. Kodak is currently installing the upgrades in Discount Drug Mart photo centers across Ohio and expects to complete the upgrade in time for the busy holiday season.

Highlighting the fleet upgrade is the enhanced Facebook Connect feature, which allows Discount Drug Mart customers to use images from their own, as well as from their friends’ shared Facebook Photo Albums, to create personalized premium photo products right at the Kodak Picture Kiosk. Discount Drug Mart is also taking advantage of the Kodak Net-to-Retail connectivity platform to offer its customers the convenience of ordering photo products online and picking orders up at their favorite Discount Drug Mart location.

In addition to software upgrades, Discount Drug Mart is adding Kodak DL2100 Duplex Printers to its fleet. The new duplex printers expand the portfolio of photo print products Discount Drug Mart can offer its customers to include double-sided Kodak Photo Books and Calendars, and the new Kodak Personal Greeting Cards, which provide consumers a creative and personal card creating experience with new designer styles and unique writeable designs.

“We’re investing in the newest digital photo center technologies while continuing to leverage our traditional services to ensure that our customers enjoy the most exceptional photo creation experience,” said John Graycar, Director of Photo Operations of Discount Drug Mart. “Kodak has been a tremendous partner, delivering innovative solutions in front and behind the counter, and over the Web, which integrate seamlessly with our existing fleet.”

“Discount Drug Mart has taken bold steps to transform its retail photo operations into contemporary, connected fulfillment centers,” said Mike Saturnia, General Manager, Consumer Business, Eastman Kodak Company. “Kodak is proud to partner with a retail pioneer like Discount Drug Mart that continually innovates to deliver value to its customers.” Discount Drug Mart currently has 70 stores in over 20 counties across Ohio including Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.

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Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) Posts Wider 3Q Loss

Tallahassee, FL 11/3/11 (StreetBeat) -- In its 3Q report, Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) Thursday signaled that its earnings are declining faster than it can engage in patent sales to raise much needed capital - and executives told investors to expect the trend to continue.

Eastman Kodak reported earnings that showed its cash fell nearly 10% to $862 million, its loss widened to $222 million or 83 cents a share and that quarterly revenue fell 17% to $1.46 billion, missing analyst estimates surveyed by Bloomberg.

In late September, the Rochester, New York -based company borrowed $160 million in September and has hired law firm Jones Day and investment bank Lazard to provide advice on asset sales and restructuring possibilities - its stock also plummeted at certain points during the quarter when bankruptcy rumors circled. Today's earnings signal that while its business losses and cash burn accelerated, the company is still confident in the proceeds it can raise from intellectual property asset sales.

Company shares fell 2.5% to $1.17 in pre-market trading. The company's stock fell as low as 54 cents a share at the end of September when Bloomberg reported that the digital imaging and camera maker may consider a bankruptcy. They've since recovered but are still down nearly 80% year to date.

"We now expect to end the year with as much as $1.4 billion in cash, before any proceeds from the sale of our digital imaging patent portfolios, reflecting the company's seasonal generation of cash in the fourth quarter," said Kodak chief executive Antonio Perez in the company's earnings announcement. He added, "Remember as well that the eventual sale of our digital patent portfolios will materially increase our cash balance and help to accelerate our efforts to complete the transformation."

Previously Perez had targeted ending the year with as much as $1.7 billion in cash. The company also guided investors to expect increasing losses as high as $400 million for 2011, more than doubling its expectations for losses from continuing operations before interest and taxes. It also tempered annual revenue expectations to be as much as $6.4 billion from $6.7 billion a year earlier. For the rest of the year, Eastman Kodak continues to expect to sell between $250 million and $350 in from intellectual property licenses and another $200 million from other assets. The company's year-end cash expectations were lowered as a result of its wider expected operating loss.

Digital-imaging patents owned by Kodak could fetch as much as $3 billion, according to a previous estimate MDB Capital Group, particularly in light of mergers earlier this year like when Google acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings at a hefty premium, largely for its trove of 17,000 patents. Nortel also sold $4.5 billion worth of patents and intellectual property in July to a consortium of tech giants including Apple and Research in Motion.

Currently, the stock is trading down 9.17% at $1.09.

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LargeCap Stocks to Watch Today

Tomahawk, WI 11/3/2011 (StreetBeat) – Struggling Eastman Kodak posted a third-quarter loss from continuing operations of $222 million, or 83 cents a share, wider than a year-earlier loss of $43 million, or 16 cents.

Analysts were expecting Kodak to post a loss of 42 cents a share in the third quarter.

Kodak said it expects a loss from continuing operations in 2011 of $400 million to $600 million. It previously forecast a loss of $200 million to $400 million.

The stock rose 4 cents, or 3.5%, to $1.20 in premarket trading Thursday.

CVS Caremark posted adjusted third-quarter earnings of 70 cents a share.

Analysts expected CVS to earn 67 cents a share in the quarter.

The drugstore and pharmacy benefits manager said it expects adjusted earnings from continuing operations in 2011 of $2.77 to $2.81 a share, a 2-cent raise in the bottom end of the range.

CVS shares rose 0.9% to $35.77.

Business social networker LinkedIn is expected Thursday to post its second earnings report as a public company.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect a loss of 4 cents a share in quarter ended in September on revenue of $127.6 million.

The stock was off 5% to $84.50 in premarket trading Thursday.

NYSE Euronext said third-quarter profit rose 54% to $186 million on strong trading volumes.

NYSE said it is continuing talks with European regulators about receiving clearance for its $9 billion merger with Deutsche Boerse.

NYSE shares rose 3.1%, up 77 cents, to $25.53 in premarket trading.

Costco Wholesale , the warehouse retailer, said same-store sales in October jumped 9%, while total sales rose 11% to $7.01 billion.

Amazon on Thursday launched a program in which Kindle and Kindle Fire users who have Amazon Prime memberships can get access to Amazon's new digital book library service.

AIG is expected by analysts to post a quarterly loss of 27 cents a share on revenue of $13.6 billion.

On Tuesday, AIG paid back the Treasury Department $972 million of the billions it received in a rescue package from the U.S. government in 2008.

Kraft Foods handily beat Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal third-quarter results and lifted its full-year outlook

The stock rose 0.2% to $34.64.

Shares of Wells Fargo were down slightly in premarket trading to $25.22, after The Wall Street Journal reported that a state judge in Illinois ruled the state may proceed with a lawsuit alleging that the San Francisco bank steered minority buyers into risky subprime mortgage loans.

According to the Journal, this is the first of such cases to proceed to the discovery stage, and continues the pullback from states' lawsuits over consumer issues, with federal regulators having almost complete jurisdiction.

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LargeCap Stocks to Keep an Eye on Today

Tomahawk, WI 10/3/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Digital company Eastman Kodak issued a statement denying reports that it was weighing filing for bankruptcy protection.

Shares were surging 41% to $1.10 in premarket trading Monday.

Arch Coal cut its 2011 earnings outlook to an adjusted profit of $1 to $1.40 a share late Friday, lower than the earnings of $2.02 a share that analysts had been projecting. The company blamed lost metallurgical coal production at its Mountain Laurel facility.

Shares were plunging 9.1% to $13.25.

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma expressed strong interest in acquiring troubled Internet company Yahoo!, according to published media reports.

Shares of Yahoo! were adding 6.3% to $14.

Yahoo! owns 40% of Alibaba Group, which owns multiple Internet businesses in China.

Electronic payments firm ACI Worldwide is acquiring payments products company S1 for $9.55 a share, an increase of 42 cents a share in cash from ACI's previous offer.

The acquisition consists of about $360 million in cash and 5.8 million in ACI shares.

Shares of S1 were gaining 5% to $9.63. ACI shares were unchanged at $27.54.

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 on Tuesday.

Apple shares were up 0.6% to $383.71.

U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors are expected to report September car sales numbers Monday.

Ford shares were down 0.3% to $9.64.

Health insurer WellPoint increased its stock buyback program by $5 billion.

Heavy vehicles supplier Oshkosh said union workers have overwhelmingly rejected a new, five-year contract, even though it would have given them a raise and signing bonus.

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Update on Japan, Middle East and Stocks

U.S. stocks advanced on Monday, boosted by strength in telecommunications and an eighth straight monthly rise in consumer spending, but jitters about overseas concerns limited gains.

Japan's nuclear disaster and civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa have increased market volatility in recent weeks, making investors cautious as they watch headlines closely for trading cues.

"It puts a cap on things for right now, at least until we start to see some earnings come out early in April. That might finally give us a little more upside, assuming that we have good earnings," said Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

"At some point people have got to price in Japan's problems and the problems in the Middle East that we know about."

U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than forecast in February, while inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since June 2009.

The S&P telecom sector rose 1.5 percent after Robert W. Baird upgraded a number of companies, including Dow components AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), saying after AT&T's deal to buy T-Mobile USA was completed, both AT&T and Verizon should benefit from one less competitor.

AT&T rose 2 percent to $29.44 while Verizon was up 1.4 percent to $37.80.

Pending U.S. home sales unexpectedly rose last month, gaining 2.1 percent and breaking a recent trend of negative data on the sector. Stocks showed little impact from the data.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 20.58 points, or 0.17 percent, to 12,241.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 1.86 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,315.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.09 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,745.15.

Eastman Kodak Co (NYSE:EK), up 11.5 percent to $3.79, was the second-most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange after a U.S. trade panel in the United States last week agreed to review a case that could bring the struggling photography company hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

The case stems from a patent claim against Apple Inc (Nasdaq:AAPL) and Research in Motion Ltd (Nasdaq:RIMM) . Apple shares edged up 0.3 percent to $352.50 and U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion shed 1.2 percent to $56.20.

Highly radioactive water leaked from a crippled nuclear complex in Japan, renewing worries over the country's reactors after an earthquake and tsunami.

Violence spread in Libya as rebels pushed west over the weekend to retake a series of towns from the forces of Muammar Gaddafi. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad deployed the army in the country's main port of Latakia for the first time after nearly two weeks of protests spread across the country.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

The above article came from Reuters.

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